Dijitalleşme odağında tekstil sektöründe tedarikçi performansının değerlendirilmesi: SWARA ve dengelenmiş skor kartı tabanlı bir model önerisi

Abstract

Günümüz rekabetçi iş dünyasında tedarik zinciri yönetimi, işletmelerin sürdürülebilir büyüme ve rekabet avantajı elde etmeleri açısından kritik bir unsur haline gelmiştir. Bugünün dünyasında tekstil sektörü, tedarik zincirinin karmaşıklığı, pazar koşulları ve müşteri beklentilerinin hızla ve sürekli değiştiği, üretim süreçlerinde dijitalleşmenin önemli hale geldiği bir sektör olarak öne çıkmaktadır. Bu nedenle sektör, etkin tedarikçi yönetimine büyük önem vermektedir. İşletmelerin faaliyet göstermiş oldukları sektörde yüksek performans gösterebilmeleri sadece işletmenin kendi performansına bağlı olmamaktadır. İşletmelerin çalıştığı tedarikçilerin başarısı, işletme performansına doğrudan etki etmektedir. Bu nedenle rekabet üstünlüğü sağlamak, başarılı olabilmek ve sürdürülebilir bir başarı sağlamak için tedarikçi seçimine gerekli özen verilmelidir. Endüstri 4.0 teknolojilerinin yaygınlaşmasıyla birlikte, tedarikçi seçim süreçlerinin de bu dönüşüme uyum sağlaması kaçınılmaz hale gelmiştir. İşletmeler, tedarikçileri ile güçlü ilişkiler kurarak operasyonel verimliliklerini artırmayı, maliyetleri düşürmeyi ve dijitalleşmenin sunduğu avantajlardan en iyi şekilde yararlanmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu bağlamda, tedarikçi performans değerlendirmesi, işletmelerin stratejik hedeflerine ulaşmalarını destekleyen önemli bir süreçtir. Bu çalışmada, tedarikçi performans değerlendirmesi için kullanılan Dengelenmiş Skor Kartı (DSK) yöntemi temel alınarak, tekstil sektöründe dijitalleşmenin etkilerini de kapsayan bir değerlendirme modeli oluşturulmuştur. Tedarikçi performansını, finansal ölçütlerin ötesinde birden fazla performans boyutunu entegre eden dengelenmiş skor kartı yöntemiyle değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu araştırma finansal, iç süreçler, müşteri, öğrenme ve gelişim gibi daha geniş bir perspektif sunarak tekstil sektöründeki tedarikçilerin kapsamlı bir şekilde değerlendirilmesine olanak tanımaktadır. Tedarikçi seçim sürecinde kullanılan ana ve alt kriterler, literatür taraması ve uzman görüşleri doğrultusunda belirlenmiş ve DSK boyutları altında kategorize edilmiştir. Ayrıca, belirlenen kriterlerin önem derecelerini analitik bir şekilde belirlemek amacıyla Çok Kriterli Karar Verme (ÇKKV) yöntemlerinden biri olan SWARA metodundan faydalanılmıştır. İkinci aşamada ise, tedarikçiler arasında performans sıralaması yapılabilmesi için Ağırlıklı Puanlama Modelinden yararlanılmıştır. Yapılan notlandırma neticesinde, tedarikçiler için performans seviyelerine göre sıralama yapılmıştır. Bu yöntemler, kriterlerin ağırlıklarını belirleyerek en uygun tedarikçilerin seçilmesine olanak tanımaktadır. Çalışmada geliştirilen model, tekstil sektöründeki işletmelerin tedarikçi seçim süreçlerini iyileştirmeye yönelik kapsamlı bir karar verme stratejik yönetim mekanizması sunmaktadır. Çalışmanın sonucunda, dijitalleşmenin tedarikçi seçim sürecine etkisini ölçmek için geliştirilen bu modelin, işletmelerin dijital dönüşüm stratejilerine uyum sağlamalarına katkıda bulunduğunu göstermektedir. DSK ve ÇKKV yöntemlerinin entegrasyonu, tedarikçi performans değerlendirmesinde sistematik, çok boyutlu ve dijitalleşmeye duyarlı bir yaklaşım sunmaktadır. Tekstil özelinde örnek bir DPK notlandırılması yapılarak, sektöre, kullanılmaya hazır bir tedarikçi performans değerlendirme sistemi sunulmuştur. Çalışma, tekstil sektöründe tedarik zinciri yönetimi ve tedarikçi seçimi süreçlerine dijitalleşme perspektifinden bilimsel bir bakış açısı kazandırarak, hem akademik literatüre hem de sektörel uygulamalara katkı sağlamaktadır.

In today's competitive business world, supply chain management has become a critical factor for businesses to achieve sustainable growth and competitive advantage. In today's world, the textile sector stands out as a sector where the complexity of the supply chain, market conditions and customer expectations change rapidly and constantly, and digitalization in production processes has become important. For this reason, the sector attaches great importance to effective supplier management. The ability of businesses to demonstrate high performance in the sector in which they operate does not only depend on the performance of the business itself. The success of the suppliers with whom businesses work directly impacts their performance. Therefore, special attention should be given to supplier selection in order to gain a competitive advantage, succeed, and maintain sustainable success. It has become inevitable for supplier selection processes to adapt to this transformation with the spread of Industry 4.0 technologies. By establishing strong relationships with their suppliers, businesses aim to increase their operational efficiency, reduce costs and make the most of the advantages offered by digitalization. In this context, supplier performance evaluation is an important process that supports businesses in achieving their strategic goals. In this study, an evaluation model that includes the effects of digitalization in the textile sector has been created based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method used for supplier performance evaluation. By translating long term business strategies into short term operational practices, the organization will be able to react and adapt to current and future changes and developments immediately with a balanced scorecard. Including these criteria in a structure allows management to measure performance more comprehensively and over the long term, rather than focusing on immediate goals. The study aims to evaluate supplier performance using the Balanced Scorecard method, which integrates multiple performance dimensions beyond financial metrics. This research provides a broader perspective such as financial, internal processes, customer, learning and development, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of suppliers in the textile sector. In order to determine the criteria for the sector in question, a list of possible criteria specific to the textile sector was created with a focus on digitalization, using literature studies. First, the main criteria were determined, and similar studies in the literature were used as a basis for determining these criteria. Quality, price, delivery, service, technological competence and innovation capability were determined as six main criteria. Then, possible performance evaluation criteria were analyzed separately and included under the relevant main criteria, and thus grouped performance criteria were created. The sub-criteria of the quality main criterion are product quality, error-free product quantity, quality standards, and smart and environmentally friendly production processes. Sub-criteria related to the main price criterion are; affordable/competitive price, discount rate, payment terms (term), and strategic partnerships by purchasing shares from suppliers with critical technologies. Delivery-related sub-criteria are on-time delivery, complete delivery, order delivery times and shortening supply chain cycle times. Another selection criterion, technological competence, includes the level of digitalization, automation and rapid prototyping, machinery and equipment competence. Sub-criteria related to the main service criterion consist of rapid response to processes and flexibility, capacity adequacy, sustainability oriented approach and customer satisfaction levels, respectively. The last main selection criterion, innovation capability, includes the tendency of suppliers to be innovative, the ability to develop new products and personnel training. It was determined and finalized in line with the deep interviews conducted with experts who actively work in the purchasing and product of well-known companies in the textile sector. Then, it is categorized under BSC dimensions. In summary, performance evaluation criteria are indicators that enable the monitoring of the responsibilities expected from suppliers. Furthermore, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods have been utilized to analytically determine the importance levels of the identified criteria. This method allows the selection of the most suitable suppliers by determining the weights of the criteria. Determining the criteria weights shows businesses the most important selection criterion in the study and also provides information about the performance of their suppliers.When the business is viewed from this perspective, the balanced scorecard provides a detailed picture of the organization's performance and guides managers in performance management. The model developed in the study provides a comprehensive decision-making strategic management mechanism to improve the supplier selection processes of businesses in the textile sector. The 6 main criteria determined for the supplier selection process and the 22 sub-criteria affiliated to them were calculated by the SWARA method, which is one of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, in order to determine the importance weights numerically. The method was preferred because of its expert-oriented approach to the decision maker. The data obtained from the SWARA method was used from the Microsoft Office program, Excel. As a result of the survey conducted with 5 decision makers; it was determined that the weight of the main criterion for quality was 0.198, the weight of the main criterion for delivery was 0.179, the weight of the main criterion for price was 0.172, the weight of the main criterion for service was 0.167, the weight of the main criterion for technological competence was 0.145 and finally the weight of the main criterion for innovation ability was 0.138. The three most important sub-criteria were; product quality with 0.062, machinery and equipment competence with 0.053 and on-time delivery with 0.051, respectively. In the study conducted in the literature in 2024, quality came third with 0.173; delivery came fourth with 0.172; price ranked fifth with 0.141 (Kasap, 2024). The main and sub-criteria used in the supplier selection process were categorized and placed under the 4 dimensions of the Balanced Scorecard. Price was placed under the financial dimension; quality and delivery under the customer dimension; service and technological competence under the internal processes dimension; and innovation capability under the learning and development dimension. As a result of the calculations, the dimension weights were found to be 37.70% for the customer dimension, 31.20% for the internal processes dimension, 17.20% for the financial dimension and 13.80% for the learning and development dimension. The customer dimension, which has the highest weight, shows that textile companies prioritize product quality and delivery when choosing suppliers. The internal processes dimension, which ranks second, means that criteria such as technological competence and the service they receive are important when choosing suppliers. It has been observed that textile companies prefer suppliers that will support the continuity of the supply chain in their production. The financial dimension, which ranks third, indicates that cost and financial conditions are less decisive for businesses when making selection and evaluation compared to the first two dimensions. The fourth dimension, the learning and development dimension, reveals that they continue to support the learning culture and innovation for the institution in supplier selection. Dimension weights are an important indicator that reveals where companies give their strategic priorities during supplier selection and where they should give them in the future. In this way, the study provided a multi-dimensional holistic scope and enabled suppliers in the textile sector to be evaluated from a more detailed and strategic perspective. In the continuation of the study, performance scoring was performed among the suppliers. In order to perform this analysis, the Weighted Scoring Model was used. The reason for using the Weighted Scoring Model is that, thanks to this simple and understandable method, suppliers can be easily scored by decision makers and comparisons can be made between alternative suppliers. Two independent decision-making experts working in the same textile company were asked to score the 2 suppliers they worked with from 1 to 5 in line with the main and sub-criteria determined. This analysis was performed using the Excel program. In the continuation of the study, the sub-criteria weights obtained with SWARA were adapted to the balanced scorecard. In the first stage, the total supplier score was obtained by multiplying the criteria weights obtained from SWARA with the scores given by the experts. As a result of the scoring, the suppliers were ranked according to their performance levels. The suppliers were coded as A and B. As can be seen in Table 6.1, a total score of 3.766 was calculated for the applied supplier A. The total score of supplier B was calculated as 3.465, as can be seen in Table 6.2. The score of supplier A was higher than that of supplier B. This result shows that supplier A showed a higher performance in line with the determined criteria. In addition, supplier A stood out as the one to be preferred when selecting a supplier compared to supplier B. While the most important main criterion for supplier A was price, the same result was reached for supplier B. When the dimensions of both suppliers were compared, the weight of the financial, customer, internal processes dimensions was higher in A; and when the learning and development dimension was examined, the score of supplier B was higher. This result indicates that supplier B attaches more importance to innovation issues. When suppliers with a high desire to adapt to digital transformation and open to development are preferred, supplier B may have an advantage. The results of the study show that the model developed to measure the impact of digitalization on the supplier selection process contributes to businesses' alignment with their digital transformation strategies. The integration of the Balanced Scorecard and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods offers a systematic, multi-dimensional, and digitalization-sensitive approach to supplier performance evaluation. By conducting an example Balanced Scorecard scoring specific to the textile sector, a ready-to-use supplier performance evaluation system has been provided to the industry. It is recommended that businesses that are selecting suppliers consider their supply chain as a whole and regularly evaluate supplier performance, clarify suppliers that are open to improvement in addition to those that will be discontinued, and provide them with the necessary support. According to the findings of the study, it is important for suppliers who currently stay away from Industry 4.0 technologies and do not invest in this area to be aware that they will have difficulties in being preferred in the face of rapidly developing technologies. This will guide them in creating their own strategic plans to reduce production costs, increase production efficiency, and transform supply chain processes. The study contributes to both the academic literature and industry practices by offering a scientific perspective on supply chain management and supplier selection processes in the textile sector from a digitalization standpoint.